Review on thermal insulation of buildings with phase change materials: incorporation methods and applications

Abstract

Reducing energy consumption is an increasingly important issue for the residential sector. As a result, attention to thermal insulation systems for buildings has increased in recent years. The use of phase change materials (PCMs) is an attractive way for the development of energy-efficient buildings by integrating with the walls, ceiling and floor, which offers considerable possibilities for insulation and to ensure a certain thermal comfort, because of their high storage density. This paper summarizes the essential knowledge on solid-liquid phase change theory, PCM classification, some previous work on storage of latent thermal energy in buildings, covering experimental and numerical studies with different applications of PCMs to buildings.